Football fans must stop thuggery that is ruining game

SUPPORTERS ­intent on causing carnage in and around Old Trafford tomorrow will wear black or navy blue coats and jackets.

SHAME OF THE GAME: Fans can come together to prevent scenes like these marring our sport []

Dark clothing helps you get away with crimes. If you wear something bright or distinctive, you can easily be spotted and tracked by CCTV cameras. But if everyone wears similar, nondescript outer garments, then it is harder for the police and Crown Prosecution Service to get good evidence against individuals.

For missiles, the fans will select cigarette lighters, handfuls of coins and old mobile phones with the SIM cards removed, to prevent the owners being identified. They are unlikely to take golf balls and darts this time, because they are expecting police searches.

We are talking about a football match. A game. A sporting contest between Manchester United and Manchester City. The semi-final of the Carling Cup, a competition which is not a priority for either .

Yet everyone knew there would be serious disturbances at last week’s first leg, so Greater Manchester Police made their assistant chief constable the “match commander”.

Seats were ripped up and thrown. At least one lighter was chucked at a player. A flare was set off. There were 18 arrests, more since and a continuing investigation.

And some fans did take golf balls and darts to that game. The sort of person who would do that – who would buy vicious objects, take them to a game and be prepared to throw them from the distant anonymity of a crowd – is a despicable coward and a dangerous sociopath.

But he is also a supporter. For more than 30 years football has disowned thugs, saying things like: “They’re not real fans; they’re only interested in fighting.”

But the uncomfortable truth is that they care passionately about the game and about their teams. They believe they are fighting for their teams. It is a stupid, twisted logic. But it is the way they think and the rest of us have to acknowledge that.

As proof, I cite discussions on internet forums like bluemoon and vitalfootball this week. The arguments have divided along predictably partisan lines and degenerated into petty name-calling between the Rags and the Bitters (That is what City call United fans and vice versa. )

They have traded puerile, playground insults and sought to apportion blame for last week’s crimes. “The Rags did so and so”. “But the Bitters did such and such”.

And, of course, Messrs Tevez and Neville have been named and blamed. Carlos Tevez has been the flag bearer for City’s new wealth since he was used in a provocative billboard. Gary Neville has been United’s most militant Manc since he first pulled on a red shirt.

Both have an absolute obligation to remember the tinder-box atmosphere they risk igniting by their continued childishness. But cupping ears or raising a single digit in rude response are not sufficient excuses for spectators to become a demented rabble. So let’s stop and think about this, please. The Council Tax payers of Manchester have to cough up to pay the police and so do the rest of us through Home Office grants. Manchester Police, like forces everywhere, are facing budget cuts and are struggling to get enough Bobbies on the beat.

Yet shifts have been rearranged and other duties delayed so that a small army of officers can be deployed tomorrow to try to keep the peace at a football match. There will be spot checks at pubs before the game. Back-up squads will be stationed in vans ready to respond where and when needed. Cordons will be formed to keep apart rival supporters.

Senior police officers, all of whom could be doing something much more useful, will attend security briefings – with club officials, with all the civilian stewards and with the match referee and his team. The police operation will include vehicles on routes in and out of the city, guarding the motorways. It will not finish until the small hours.

Then, when Thursday’s shifts begin, another long, costly process will start – dealing with people who have been arrested, investigating others, piecing together evidence for prosecutions and the whole elaborate business of remands, pre-trial reviews and countless court hearings.

This is not just a Manchester problem. On the south coast, police are already drawing battle lines for the FA Cup tie between Southampton and Portsmouth next month. And in towns throughout the land, similar operations are implemented every other week.

Is this how we want football to be in 2010?

If not, then those supporters who would never, ever, think of taking a dart to a game must start doing something about those who do. We have to stop contributing to routine hatred by saying things on the web and chanting things at games that would get us arrested if we shouted them in the street.

Staying silent – not joining in the verbal and written violence – is the minimum requirement for a decent person. But silence is sometimes not enough.

If we see someone committing a criminal act then we must tell a steward or a police officer.

It is much easier to do nothing. But we’ve all been doing that for too long. Just as, for more than 30 years, football has tried to disown the thug fans and made excuses for them.

We have to stop defending the indefensible and start defending the game. We have to take responsibility. Football Correspondent MICK DENNIS urges fans to take responsibility in a bid to stop the thuggery that is spoiling our game